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Do you collect sea glass? If you do, you know what a special and rare treat it is to find one of those gems from the sea. Imagine having a business that requires you to comb some of the most beautiful beaches in the world…

Gary de Blois is a graphic designer, amateur photographer, jewelry maker, and a lifelong beachcomber. His sea glass collecting hobby weaves together all these passions and he now gets to plan “business trips” to places like California, Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico.

Gary DeBlois collecting sea glass in Cayucos, CA

We featured Gary and his sea glass business, Just Beachy Keen on our blog almost two years ago and it continues to be on of our most popular blog posts today. Sea glass collecting is a hot topic! So I thought I would check in with Gary to see what he has been up to lately…

Gary’s pendants made from Murano sea glass!

Gary works with genuine sea glass found on beaches around the world. While he does travel to collect sea glass, he also purchases from other collectors that he has met at various sea glass festivals. Most recently, he has been working with Murano sea glass from Italy.

Lately, I have been making pendants using glass found by a scuba diver off the island of Murano, in Venice, Italy. Murano has been known as the glass making capital of the world for hundreds of years!

We meet people from around the world who have amazing sea glass, and we now have friends in England, France, Italy and Greece just to name a few. Now we just need to find time to visit them all! – Gary DeBlois

In his youth, Gary began sea glass collecting while spending summers on the coast. This is where his passion for beach combing began. Those zen moments spent strolling the beach, enjoying the sights, sounds and scent of the ocean… ahhhh… tonic for the soul. Finding sea glass, in its myriad of shapes and colors, was like treasure hunting to Gary. At days end, these beachy gems were brought home, and placed in jars as keepsakes, colorful reminders of all the fun times spent playing in the sand.

Now, he explores the coastal regions of the US as well as the world for sea glass, collecting it, photographing it and making jewelry and other whimsical objects with it. Only the most genuine sea glass is used, collected by Gary himself or his sea glass collecting cohorts. He works with sea glass as it is found on the beach, never grinding or reshaping the glass, only occasionally drilling as required. The result is a unique, one-of-a-kind, sea glass pendant, earring pair, etc.

The great news is that there are so many wonderful choices this weekend. The bad news is that to see them all, you’ll be driving back and forth across most of the state of Rhode Island – luckily it’s a small state. Here is the line-up of our top picks for this weekend:

Saturday, October 6th

PROVIDENCE

RISD Art Sale – The 2012 RISD Fall Alumni + Student Art Sale is on Saturday, October 6, 2012 from 10 am to 4 pm. The sale will take place on Benefit Street between Waterman and Hopkins Streets and is free to attend. Over 150 alumni artists and current students will be displaying and selling their work including fine art, glass, ceramics, apparel, jewelry and much more.

JAMESTOWN (that’s over the bridge – you’d better pack a lunch folks)

Monster Party Opening Reception at the Jamestown Arts Center – Saturday from 5 -8pm.The Studio Miners and the Jamestown Arts Center present Monster Party, a friendly celebration of monsters for the whole family, opening on Saturday, October 6 and running until October 31. The exhibition will feature artwork from prominent New England artists in the main gallery, with the inclusion of monster-centric doodles and drawings made by local children in the front gallery space. In addition to the artwork, there will be a monster mini-golf hole, a photobooth, face painting, a 30 foot mural, an 8 foot monster sculpture, costumes from Providence-based character creators, the Big Nazo, and many other monster surprises.

SCITUATE

The Scituate Art Festival is also this weekend October 6th – 8th Saturday thru Monday. What began in 1967 as a fundraiser for an ailing church building with only 12 local exhibitors is now a huge event with over 300 exhibitors from all over the U.S. and Canada.

The event takes place over the Columbus Day Weekend – Saturday and Sunday, 10/6-7 from 10am to 5pm and then again on Monday, 10/8 from 10am – 4pm. Village Green on Route 116, North Scituate, Rhode Island.

WESTERLY

The 7th Annual All Members Show at the Artists Cooperative Gallery of Westerly. October 3 – 31st. Members have created works of art in the theme of “Peace” for this show. Admission is free, and the gallery is open Tuesday through Saturdays, 10am – 5pm. 7 Canal Street, Westerly. 596-2221

Please leave a comment on this post if you hit any of these venues and would like to share. We would love to hear from you! Have a great weekend!

Special thanks to Roger Williams Park Zoo for their support of Festival Fete’s Holiday Market in Garden City on December 1st and 2nd.

Bring your entire family to enjoy Festival Fete’s Holiday Market, December 1st and 2nd at the Garden City Center in Cranston, RI from 10am to 5pm daily. The festival will include over 100 Contemporary American Art and Craft artisans along with visits with Santa, FREE Gift wrapping, a Children’s Creation Station, festive food and strolling merriment.

$3 per person donation to Art Is Smart is suggested (read more below…). Children under 12 are FREE.

Keep your calendars open – You don’t want to miss out on this event!

Art Is Smart serves children by raising funds to support public education art programs. We produce and sell AIS merchandise, hold fundraising events, and direct 100% of corporate and individual donations to public school art teachers who request funding via a short, specific letter outlining what they need funding for and how much. A simple and straightforward process for raising and distributing funds, Art Is Smart is based on pure passion for the arts. For more information, visit the official website here.

Hiroko Shikashio of Hiroko Art uses color as the key element in her abstract watercolors and collages. She is moved by scenes and simple objects surrounding her and seeks to assimilate and transform her works into colorful imagery.

The backbone to her art life derives from the fact that her father was once a famous artist in Japan. His influence of loving what he does has driven Hiroko to make beautiful works of art.

While Hiroko began as a watercolorist, she soon began to expand her media, moving into acrylics, oil sticks and then to collage. She is extremely passionate about world traveling and naturally takes photos wherever she goes – this became serious media for expression in her recent years.

People ask me which media do you enjoy most, then I must say, I love all of it. I rotate expressing creativity in all media.

Brenda Gaudette of Earth Inspired Clay Works loves to create unique function ceramic ware and handmade-framed tile/mosaic art works inspired by earth and other elements found in nature – making each piece truly an original.

Her work both celebrates the rich textures, colors, organic shapes and patterns found in nature as well as includes other traditional, contemporary and symbolic stamped design elements.

In Brenda’s opinion, in order to create a successful piece, one must practice thoughtful aesthetic judgments and strong craftsmanship. – “Even the smallest of works are designed and created with an eye for quality composition and technical skill.”

Trish Kozub of iDazz Custom Designs has been designing jewelry for 12 years, working mostly with gemstones, pearls and glass but favoring those pieces which incorporate signed brooches and earrings from the 1940s, and shoe buckles and buttons from Paris from the 1890s!

Trish works diligently to accumulate amazing vintage goods, which tend to be her favorite pieces (and her customer’s as well). Trish is influenced by the mere beauty of the beads and vintage pieces because they allow her to create fun and distinctive collections!

At It’s a Dog’s Life Bakery, they make all natural, gluten and preservative-free dog treats that people feel good about giving their dogs. They also make stylish handmade collars and leashes, perfect for our furry friends in sizes from chihuahas to St. Bernards…

The main inspiration behind their work is Kristin Paradis’ 170 lb.St. Bernard, Otis, a frustrated fashionista, who had nothing cute to wear! He also suffers from various allergies, so after much research, and many delicious trials and errors, It’s a Dog’s Life Bakery was born.

A Dog’s Life Bakery prides themselves on having the happiest, most enthusiastic customers, who make them smile every time they stop by the booth! “Oh, and their humans are very nice too!”

Collage and art journaling professional, Nancy creates handbound blank art journals filled with 140# paper with fun designs and sayings on them. The journals are unique because there are so few blank journals with this great paper, which can stand up to watercolor, acrylic, glue, collage and never bend or buckle.

Her inspiration for creating journals is the love she has for art journaling herself. She spends at least 30 minutes every day working in her journal…and usually a lot longer!

This summer, Nancy has become involved with an international group call Art Abandonment (created by Michael and Andrea deMeng) that invites artists around the world to create art and then leave it somewhere where others can find it and take it home. There are more than 5000 people involved in the project! Nancy has created a giving tree in Wickford with a few dozen pieces hanging from the branches, and received three emails from people who found them and took them home. She thinks it’s a great way to celebrate art and share it with the world and so do we!

These are only a couple of our wonderful participating artists and vendors that will be at the East Greenwich Art Festival on September 1st and 2nd at the New NE Tech Campus!

Stay tuned all week for more fun features about our artists and festivals!